Chapter 17 - Alexia

Switzerland is cold. And expensive. That's all I'm going to say on this matter.

Also, I was so tired. The first night I slept for like ten hours straight.

Anyways, I kind of did something bad. I was pretending to be asleep the night before. I just couldn't walk another second. I was tired, my feet hurt and I just wanted to sleep. I know, I'm a bad person.

But, I actually found out something new.

Apparently, Julia thinks that Luke and I would be cute together! She, and I quote, is shipping us! I don't know if to feel happy or outraged or just embarrassed. Probably all three.

I hate to admit it, but when Luke said that nothing was going to happen between us, my heart sank. I wanted something to happen. I didn't know when, I didn't know how, I just felt like something should and would happen.

I woke up at about seven in the morning, which is weird, since it should've been four in the afternoon for me. I normally don't sleep at four in the afternoon.

I looked around and noticed that Luke wasn't in his bed. Then, I heard the faint sound of the shower running.

I sighed and looked out of the window. The view was truly amazing. The hotel was right over the lake, and our room was on one of the top floors. I could see everything: boats racing over the water, people walking along the lake promenade, teenagers chatting over a cup of coffee. For a moment, I thought about how my life would've been if I'd actually lived here. Probably amazing.

Suddenly, the water shut off. Shortly after, Luke came walking out of the bathroom, with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Holy mama.

'Oh, hey,' he said. 'Merry Christmas.'

'Oh, yeah! Merry Christmas to you too!' I said, blushing. I looked away, trying to avoid staring at his toned body.

'I'm done using the bathroom,' he noted. 'You can take a shower now.'

'Thanks,' I told him.

I crawled out of bed and entered the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I leaned my head against the door.

Why is he so hot? I asked myself.

I shook my head at my craziness. I then took my pajamas off and got in the shower. Finally, I could shower without any worries.

Except for the fact that you like Luke.

Except for the fact that Julia ships you two.

Except for the fact that you can't express your feelings.

Except for the fact that you don't even speak Italian.

Okay, maybe a few worries.

I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my chest, so that it covered up my whole body. I then slowly opened the door and walked out of the bathroom. Luke was sitting on his bed, with a small box between his legs. For a moment, his eyes stared into mine, then snaked their way down to my exposed legs.

He looked away, embarrassed, and I actually felt a little proud of myself.

'What's that?' I asked.

'Your Christmas present.'

I froze. I hadn't gotten him anything. How could I have been such a terrible friend? I looked at him, wide-eyed. 'What?'

He smirked. 'Don't worry, you didn't have to get me anything.'

'No, I did. It's Christmas! Of course I have to get you a present!' I exclaimed.

I walked to my suitcase and kneeled down, always keeping a hand of the towel to keep it from falling down. 'I'll get you something today,' I said.

'You being here is a good enough gift,' Luke said.

'That's sweet,' I said. 'But I want to.'

He smiled. I took my clothes and quietly changed in the corner of the room, making sure that I was out of Luke's sight. When I was done, I dried my hair with a towel, then made it fall down on my shoulders.

'Here,' Luke said. I looked over at him. He was handing me the small box. I took it carefully and opened the lid. Inside was a beautiful silver bracelet. It had three beads: a heart, a book and a horse. I was shocked.

'This is beautiful,' I whispered.

'Do you like it?' Luke asked.

'Are you kidding?' I exclaimed. 'I love it!'

I was so excited that I hugged him tight, my arms around his neck. He quickly returned the hug, placing his arms around my waist. After a couple of seconds, I slowly raised my head and looked at him in the eyes.

I stared at him, and he stared at me. As if by magic, I started to drift closer to him, little by little. We were barely two inches apart, when someone knocked on our door. We quickly broke apart, our faces red.

'Um… sorry,' Luke said.

'Uh, it's okay,' I said, blushing. Someone knocked again.

'I should get that,' Luke said as he walked towards the door.

I didn't answer, but I looked at the mirror, which now showed a wide-eyed, freaked-out, crazy-ass girl.

Did Luke and me just tried to kiss?! Oh god.

Wait, why am I worried? I want this. I like Luke, and, even if I didn't picture my first kiss with someone like that, I was ready. At least, I thought I was.

Turns out, the one who had knocked on our door was Julia. She said that she had a big day planned: we would take the car and go to Carì, a small town in the mountains. She didn't tell us what we were going to do there, but Luke looked excited, so I figured it would be fun. Julia said we would have to wear something warm since, you know, it's cold in the mountains.

Half an hour later, we were ready to leave. We drove for about an hour. When we arrived, we took a funicular, which brought us to the tip of the mountain. It was a small mountain, but it was still pretty high up. And that meant that it was freezing cold. And that meant that there was snow everywhere. I had only seen snow once in 2012, when a major snowstorm had hit California. It had been a fun year.

Anyways, we got off the funicular and Julia headed for a small office. I followed, although I didn't really know what we were doing.

"Wait here," Julia said before I could walk in the little hut.

"What was that about?" I asked Luke, who was standing beside me.

"You'll see."

Five minutes later, Julia walked out with three sleds. "Ta da!" she exclaimed.

"We're going to go down the mountain with these!" Luke said pointing at the sleds.

I was actually a little worried, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. There was a slope only for sleds, so we didn't have much trouble. I have a complaint though: the track had so many tight turns, that you sometimes had to stand up and turn by foot. Other than that though… it was awesome.

It was 7 o'clock when we got home, and we were all exhausted, so we decided to just chill for the rest of the day.

I took a shower and changed into some sweatpants and a pullover. You know, the traditional I-don't-want-to-do-anything type of clothes. Luke did the same, but he seemed a little distracted. Every time I would ask him something, he would look at me, smile, and answer vaguely.

'What do you want to do?' I asked him.

He turned, smiled, and said, 'Whatever you want.'

I smiled back at him, then took the remote and turned on the TV. There wasn't anything good on, so I turned it off again.

'Alexia,' Luke said suddenly.

'Yeah?' I asked.

He hesitated a bit, then answered. 'Would you…um…like to…uh…go…out…tonight?'

I'll admit, I was a little surprised. But this could've been the beginning of something more than just friendship.

'Sure,' I said. It was his turn to look surprised.

'Wow, okay. Is it okay if we leave at nine?' he asked.

'Yes, that's perfect,' I say to him. 'Where are we going? I need to know what to wear.'

'Oh, just wear some jeans. We won't be going far,' he said.

'Oh, so you're not going to tell me where we're going?'

He just smirked. I giggled, 'It's fine.'

I took out my book and started reading. About an hour later, I started getting ready.

I walked over to my open suitcase and pulled out a simple pair of skinny jeans, a black sweater that said 'To do list: nothing.' and walked to the bathroom. I changed, put on my white Adidas and my jacket.

'You ready?' Luke asked me.

'Yup.'

We walked out of the hotel and went towards the lake in silence. We went to a small strip of land, and luckily there weren't many people there. We walked over to a bench and sat down. It was beautiful. The city lights brightened the horizon, the calm lake reflected the moon and, since the road was far away from the coast, it was really quiet.

Luke broke the silence. "Happy birthday, Alexia."

I abruptly turned to him, wide-eyed. "What?"

He laughed. "I didn't get you a birthday present, so I had to improvise."

I covered my mouth with my hands. "Oh, my gods," I whispered. "No one has ever done something so… so…"

"Lame?" Luke suggested with a chuckle.

"Beautiful," I corrected. "Amazing. Wonderful. But not lame." I shook my head. "This is the most amazing thing anyone has ever done to me." I looked into his sparkling green eyes. "Thank you."

He was staring at me, slowly coming closer. "It's nothing."

And closer. "It's not nothing. It's perfect." And closer. "You're perfect."

He smirked. "Not as perfect as you." And finally, the gap between us closed.

We kissed passionately. Luke put a hand on my lower back, pulling me closer. I put my hands behind his head, urging him to kiss me more. Out of breath, I broke the kiss, but Luke didn't like that. He pulled me closer again, slamming our lips together. I couldn't take it anymore: I slid my tongue in his mouth.

Oh, my gods, this is amazing. I thought.

After a few seconds, we broke apart, gasping for air. We looked at each other and laughed.

"So," Luke said. "How was it?"

I burst out laughing. "Are you seriously going to ask that?"

"Okay, sorry. Forget I asked," he chuckled.

I leaned towards him and whispered in his ear. "A+."

A wide grin appeared on his face. He looked at me in the eyes and gave me a peck on the lips. "We should go. My mom could be worried."

Luke got up and held out his hand. I took it and he pulled me up. We walked home with our hands tied together.

When we arrived at the hotel, Julia was waiting outside our room. When she saw us, she came towards us with an angry look on her face. "Where the hell were you?"

"Sorry mom, we didn't tell you: we went to the lake."

"Don't you ever-" she spotted our tangled hands. Her eyes widened.

"You're together? WOOHOOO!" she yelled.

"Mom!" Luke said and then whispered. "Jesus."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just so happy for you!" she exclaimed. She looked at me and winked. "So, how is he?"

"Oh god," Luke said. "Bye, mom." He dragged me into our room and shut the door.

"Sorry for that," he apologized.

"Don't worry about it," I said giggling. I walked closer to him and kissed him: it was the best feeling in the world. We broke apart. I looked at my watch. "Wow. It's already almost eleven o'clock," I said. "We should probably go to bed."

"Yeah, sure," Luke answered.

We both changed and slid under the covers. "Goodnight Alexia," Luke said, turning off the light.

"Goodnight Luke."